Computer processing is now commonplace. Ordinary computer processing as it now exists commonly requires the input data to be structured to accommodate the software programs being used. For example, a computer using a common word processing application requires keyboard inputs or data in a particular format in order to function properly.
Homeland security is an extremely important field. The complexity of asymmetric threats in a society as complex as ours, and the cost of threat amelioration, have rendered security vulnerable to highly publicized threats. Whenever humans are involved in threat evaluation or situation monitoring, there is the distinct possibility of failure to properly evaluate a threat scenario in which the clues to the threat are distributed among many information sources. Even when the clues are more limited in number, sheer fatigue or boredom may result in inattentiveness, which in turn might allow a threat to materialize. There is just too much data in too many sources for humans to accurately mine through.
The problems of computerized processing of both archived and real-time or current information from disparate sources have been subject to much attention, and the problems with achieving sufficient computing power, accessing all the available data, translating or information extraction from non-English-language text, and the like, have been addressed in the prior art.
Improved methods for aiding human decision making are desired.